Walking Wounded
by Hael Rallekcm
Summary: Let's be honest. If you were ran of a highway by a truck at high speeds I'm sure there would be at least a few broken bones. Letty suffers a little more than what the movie depicts. This takes place during TFATF after Letty's crash. Dom and Letty of course!


'Just a Scratch'

It was quite a shock to both boys who watched as it happened. It was very sudden and much unexpected, throwing both men off task of getting Vince off of that truck. As they flew past the accident at over 100km/hr they saw the storm of dust that had risen over the rolled over car. Dom, in a state of shock and heartbreak, immediately scream her name. He knew she couldn't hear him but it was an involuntary reaction. As soon as those words left his mouth he was then on the radio to Leon.  
'Leon. Pull back for Letty. Get her out of there!'  
Leon was on it immediately, slamming on the breaks, u-turning and speeding back off down the highway to where the wreckage lay. As soon as he pulled up he rushed out of the car calling her name.  
'Letty! Letty? Come baby!'  
As he ran down through the bushes around to where he hoped she had pulled herself free his stomach twisted and panic rushed through his veins. Once he reached the crash he saw Letty trying to pulled herself out of the passenger side window that had been completely smashed.  
'Letty! You okay? Come on girl, you alright?'  
Tears were rushing down her cheeks as pain spread all over her body. Leon saw that her right arm was twisted and had a deep laceration that was pouring blood onto the sand. Her face had scraps and cuts all over from where the shards of glass from the smashed window had come in contact with her. Leon grabbed her from under the arms and assisted pulling her lower half out of the car. Immediately he saw a horrific site located on her right lower leg. Both her tibia and fibula was broken and protruding from her skin in a 90° angle. Letty looked stunned at her leg for a brief moment before pointing and stuttering.  
"Is that supposed to be like that?" She was clearly not completely with it as Leon shook his head and finished dragging her out of the car.  
As soon as she was free from the wreckage Leon picked her up and moved her 50 meters away from the car in case it blew. Letty moaned in pain as she struggled to get a decent breath in.  
'Dam Let, baby. You've done so serious damage.'  
As soon as Leon finished, Letty tried to turn on her side but failed because of the intense pain in her chest. Blood then started to spew from Letty's mouth as she vomited up a fountain of blood. Leon immediately assisted in turning Letty over into recovery position so she didn't choke on her own blood. Letty moaned loudly as sharp pain burst through her from her lungs, screaming bloody murder was all she could do. Leon caught in the side of his eye blood starting to stain the outside of her tank top. Lifting it slightly her saw a decent size laceration on her stomach that started and the end of her 8th rib and continued down to her pelvis, disappearing down her leg. It was then that he noticed her leg starting to swell around her knee and thigh. Letty was definitely in a critically bad shape and was getting worse as the seconds ticked by.  
'Hang in there Letty, I'm calling for help.'  
Leon knew the possible consequences of calling the authorities for help, but if he didn't he knew that one of his best friends would die. He wiped out his phone and called for an ambulance. Letty meanwhile was having difficulty breathing, especially as more blood continued to spew out of her mouth. Leon hung up the phone and then cradled Letty's head in his arms, assisting her into a better position.  
'You'll be okay Let. A chopper is on its way.'  
'How's Vince?' Was something that she managed to get out between short gasps.  
'Dom is still trying to get him off the truck. Don't worry baby. Just worry about yourself. He'll be okay.'

No more than five minutes later Leon heard the sound off a chopper flying over.  
'Baby there here.'  
Letty was still trying to get air into her lungs while blood was trying to get out. Shivering know, she was struggling to fight off unconsciousness that threaten to consume her. It was the constant sound off Leon calming voice that helped to keep her here. The paramedic rushed over to her once they disembarked the helicopter.  
'What happened to her?'  
'A bad car accident,' Leon pointed to the car they lay upside down smashed all over. 'Run off the road by a semi-trailer.'  
The paramedic immediately told Leon to keep his hands firmly on her head, keeping it from moving in case on any spinal damage. He put an oxygen mask over her mouth as he saw the amount of difficulty she had with breathing. He then proceeded to place a neck brace around her neck and administer morphine into her blood stream to help reduce the pain. After taking care of as much as they could they loaded Letty onto the helicopter with Leon next to her and immediately took off back to LA to get her to the ER ASAP. Leon held Letty's hand tightly as she continued to struggle with the pain. He rubbed his thumb back and forth in a steady rhythm to help comfort her while he took out his phone and called Dom; he would be extremely worried.

As soon as they arrived at the hospital Letty was rushed into emergency surgery. Leon quietly sat down in the waiting room and started bouncing his leg, anxious on the outcome for Letty. Not even 5 minutes later Vince was also rushed into the ER looking in a very bad state. Leon couldn't even process the fact that two of his closest friends were currently fighting for their lives. Curious as to where the others where overtook Leon's worry so he stepped outside for a moment and called Mia. Unfortunately, the phone rang out. He then called Dom, hoping that he would pick up. He knew that Dom wouldn't just leave his best friend when he obviously was critically injured. He also knew that Dom would be extremely worried about Letty. Once again, the phone rang out.  
'Where the hell are they?'  
Leon continued to wait another couple of hours to see if there was any news on the state of two of his friends, constantly trying to get through to any of the others as he waited. Time continued to roll on and no news came out and no phone calls came in. Deciding enough was enough, Leon went up to the nurse that was sitting behind a glass screen at a desk. He asked where he could get any information about Letty and Vince but nothing had been received, apparently they were still in surgery. Annoyed by the lack of progress Leon stormed out of the waiting room into the cool breeze of the night.

Leon returned to the hospital about 40 minutes later. Taking a walk around the area allowed him to blow off some steam and get his thoughts straight. First thing he did was check up on Letty and Vince's progress with the nurse at the front desk. Apparently Vince was out of surgery and in recovery; his surgery went very well. Letty on the other hand was still in surgery. Apparently there were quite a few complications that had risen during the last few hours, making the surgery longer and more difficult. Relived that he was able to see Vince he quickly followed the nurse through to where he was resting.  
Vince smiled weakly as he saw his friend. 'Nice to see someone came to see me.'  
Leon laughed and proceeded to sit down next to his mate. 'You had us all worried.'  
Vince ignored that and his face turned serious. 'Letty? How's my Letty?'  
Leon was shocked. He didn't know that Vince knew about Letty.  
'Dom told me. Crying when he got to me, said something about her car flipping or something.'  
Leon looked down, tears threatening around his eyes as the image of Letty's car crashing at 100k/m beamed around in his mind. 'Yeah, um the semi ran her car off the road at 100, flipping in over onto the dirt. She's still in surgery.'  
'I'm gonna kill Dom when I next see him,' Vince said with anger deep in his voice.  
All the boys were very protective over Letty. To them she was a little sister, someone who needed their back up and support. She didn't really need them as much as the boys liked to think so but it gave them some piece of mind when she was out causing trouble as usual. Letty was special, to everyone. She wasn't anywhere near your typical girl, or even your typical eighteen-year-old.  
Letty grew up all over the world, traveling ever since she was seven. It exposed her to the world early, bringing in new cultures and lifestyles along the way. Before all that though, she was a normal child born in the far northern California to a mother of Portuguese birth and an American father. Her ancestry from there was mainly Portuguese but had some South American mixed in as well. She loved her life growing up on over 1000 acres of forest. That's where Letty life really took off in the Californian country. Her families land consisted of many beautiful waterfalls, trails, mountains and valleys. It was also connected to the coast allowing the kids to grow up with the ocean around them which gave Letty a head start in the future love for the ocean and being around the water. The farm was located a few k/m's away from the country race track where her father worked as both a mechanical engineer and a photographer. Their farm also had their own personal track that was built in honour of her father by the community prior to their arrival. So it's no wonder where Letty got her love for racing from. Growing up Letty and her three brothers spent most of their time either exploring around the farm, playing sport or swimming in the ocean. Never could they be found inside, nature was where they loved to play and grow; climbing trees, hiking the mountains, surfing the waves, running across valleys and playing in the mud. The only time you would find Letty inside was when her mother bought a brand new grand piano and proceeded to teach Letty how to play. Her mother would gently play it while the kids where being home-schooled. As soon as Letty first heard her mother touch those keys she was in love with the sound it made and mesmerised by the fluid movement and gentle touch required to create such beauty and peace. As expected Letty took up playing the piano in a heartbeat and loved every minute she spent practicing on such a majestic instrument. By the time Letty was seven she was an extraordinary musician, not only on the piano but had learnt how to play the flute and guitar (as suggested by her father). Music was Letty's passion, just another one to put next to sport and racing.

Of course like all joyous stories, tragedy is never far off. Just after Letty's seventh birthday her mother and youngest brother, Boyd, were killed in a car accident coming back from down south. A drunken truck driver collided with them at fast speeds on the highway killing all three of them instantly. Their whole world fell apart. Grief overtook the family and the kids didn't want to go and play outside anymore; they didn't want to play at all. Her father decided after a few months of constant moping that a serious change was needed, and that changed just happened to be named National Geographic. They were looking for another photographer to travel the world taking amazing and culturally unique pictures of the worlds amazing sites, creations and wonders. And so that's when the traveling began. For six years their family travel everywhere, doing the most amazing things, especially for children so young. But for Letty that wasn't the best part. The best part was she met her forever best friend, Jordon. Jordon was the same age as Letty and was an only child. He fit in well with Letty and her brothers as if he had always been with them from birth. His dad was also a photographer and was partnered with Letty's dad. Besides the fact that they basically lived together and spent most of the time together, there was something very special about Letty and Jordan's relationship, something that they knew would grow into something special. The years passed by and once again tragedy struck again. This time it was Jordan's mother. She died very quickly from a virus she picked up somewhere in northern Africa.

Finally after 13 hours in surgery Letty finally emerged. She had server internal bleeding steaming from her hepatic artery and renal vein which accounted for over two thirds of blood loss. Her leg required intensive manipulation including pins, rods and plates to reassemble it and keep it stable. The lacerations over various points of her body needed stitching and disinfecting. As a result of where the car crashed much dirt and sand had entered the wounds threatening infection. Her right arm was operated on and plastered as well as her broken collar bone. Seven ribs were broken badly and five more had transverse fractures. Damaged occurred to the upper region of her abdomen that require graphs to be put in and finally CT scans were needed to determined the extent of any brain damage.

Letty awoke the next morning to stiffness and soreness all over her body. The morphine she was on took away all the pain which she was thankful for. Both Mia and Leon were sitting next to Letty each holding a hand. Mia was supporting a tear stained face but that was overlooked by the grin that went from ear to ear when Letty's eyes fluttered open.  
"Letty!" Mia exclaimed and kissed the hand she was holding.  
Leon reached over from his seat and kissed Letty on the head, "How you feeling champ?"  
"Like I was hit by a truck carrying more trucks," Letty replied.  
"Well you technically were hit by a truck," Mia mentioned.  
Letty cut straight to the chase and asked how Vince was. As if on cue Vince walked in wearing a hospital gown with his arm strapped to his chest.  
"Letty, you've come back to us!" Vince smiled walking up to her and kissing her forehead. "Was so worried about you man."  
"How are you?" Letty replied.  
"Not bad just a few stiches and I'm good to go, can't say the same for you though."  
"What's the damage?" Letty asked.  
Mia proceeded to answer, "Broken leg, ribs, arm, collar bone with internal bleeding, damaged abdomen lining, concussion and server blood loss."

"Dam," Letty said, closing her eyes exhausted from surgery.  
"Dom fled to the border. He's worried sick about you. He wanted to come and be with you but there are cops guarding the entrance expecting him to show up. Turned out Brian was an undercover cop. Not a very good won; however, he let Dom get away, actually helped, and then fled himself."  
Letty wasn't surprised. She was still out of it due to the anaesthetic from surgery.  
"Jesse was killed yesterday by Tran," Leon confessed. "Dom managed to drive him off his motorbike killing him once he hit the ground as payback."


End file.
